step into JAY'S WORLD... |
|
|
The King of all Blogs. sign my guestbook message board IM me hit me up with an email cd reviews buds: al bill ed jen mike richard sam steve teams: ny giants ny rangers ny yankees psu photos: jay's fotolog jay's pics jenibabe's fotolog mcfresh's fotolog mik's fotolog murph's fotolog psu pics slavin's fotolog fun stuff: chappelle's show conan o'brien donnie baseball ghost cam lego porn transformers trek bikes weird nj games: nintendo playsite snood text twist bands: a perfect circle beastie boys black sabbath dimmu borgir god forbid iced earth in flames iron maiden judas priest opeth otc outkast ozzy osbourne shadows fall slayer tool zakk wylde music-related: 89.5 wsou nj 90.7 the lion wkps 93.3 wmmr philly blabbermouth bravewords concerts east crowbar infinity 1 KNAC.com metalbite metal review metal rules metal sludge the prp 4th and one records info: bwi cnn daily collegian daily record espn h-town imdb the trib History: 
|
Sunday, February 29, 2004
I saw The Passion of the Christ the other day along with Mike and Al ... in case you havent heard, it's this film about the last years of Jesus, and it was directed by Mel Gibson, apparently it's been in the news lately ....
Anyway, yeah the film is pretty violent, although for me personally I didn't think it was too overly violent, from some of the reviews and things I've heard I was expecting to be vomiting up my Raisinets but that wasn't the case. I've seen more disturbing images in movies and on TV, although this film was pretty consistently graphic and all the violence was directed at the main character in a pretty brutal way, which I suppose made it stand out. But I didn't think it was exploitative, and I don't understand some of the critics who have said it's a "non-stop gorefest" and it doesn't address the teachings of Jesus or why he is a beloved figure .... granted the movie only covers the last 12 hours of his life and focuses primarily on his crucifixion, but there are plenty of examples of his life and teachings throughout the film. As for the whole anti-semitism thing, I'm not buying it .... maybe I'm biased (nine years of catholic school will do that) but I just don't see this movie as being so extremely negative toward Jews, it remains pretty close to the gospel stories except for a few minor tweaks, and I don't really see this anti-Jewish stuff in the Bible either, so I'm not buying it (or should I say, I respectfully disagree) ..... Anyway, overall it's a good film, definitely worth seeing ... it's the kind of movie that gets you thinking and sticks with you after you leave the theater (unlike most modern movies), which was pretty much the point of it, I also found it to be somewhat inspiring in a religious sense, and I expect many other people will too .... I suggest you check it out, not a lot of people are talking about it and it could go unnoticed unless people get the word out, I'd hate to see it lose money ... plus, they left the ending open for a sequel (***major spoiler: he comes back to life at the end!!) .... But seriously though, I find it interesting that this is the biggest thing going right now, a religious film based on the Christian faith, and these intense religious controversies .... meanwhile we have a president who's actually trying to restrict individual feedoms, in the Constitution no less, by banning gay marriage ... plus the outrage at a bared breast on television and the use of a racial slur on Howard Stern's radio show and the subsequent attempts at media censorship, plus we're still getting over the whole foreign war in Iraq and another victory for the US of A ... i'm not sure where I'm going with this but things are getting weird in a conservative, family values sort of way, it just feels like a very interesting time in our history right now... Anyway, on a lighter note, the other night Al, Matt and I went bowling, I came in last both games, in fact I don't believe I cracked 100 either time, but a good time was still had by all .... oh and if you're looking to make some quick money, think about buying some land near Hamilton Lanes and starting a trailer park, you could probably make a killing ...... later in the evening Al and I enjoyed some fine food at the world-famous Golden Dawn III diner, it was marvelous as always .... Jen is coming home in exactly six days for Spring Break, I can't wait .... she is working a lot at Rita's though, but I'm taking a couple days off from work so hopefully we'll get to chill and whatnot, I'm sure it will be a fun week ... Wednesday, February 25, 2004
So Rangers coach Glen Sather stepped down today FINALLY ... this team has been spiralling downard for a good seven years now .... that's right, seven years with the highest payroll in the NHL and seven years of no playoffs (they're currently 14 points out of the last playoff spot) .... the almighty Sather (who guaranteed they'd make the playoffs last year, mind you) is still sticking around as team GM/President for some reason, it's almost unfathomable that he hasn't been fired after three-plus years of his nonsense, but whatever at least they made a change .... now Sather is supposedly going to focus on the team's personnel with the trade deadline coming up, hopefully they'll ship out some high-priced veterans who've underperformed (i.e. Alexei Kovalev, Petr Nedved, Boris Mironov, Martin Rucinsky, among others), maybe even clear out some aging veterans (Mark Messier) and get some talented, young players in return. They just better keep their own young stars like Fedor Tyutin, Jed Ortmeyer and Jamie Lundmark, and I hope they keep Brian Leetch because he should finish his career as a Ranger after all he's had to put up with through the years ... of course it's all worthless if new coach Tom Renney doesn't install a cohesive team system, something Sather never believed in for some reason .... ugh what a frustrating seven years it's been ....
Anyway, on to something lighter ... Today, I got a nice surprise in the mail, the Chappelle's Show Season 1 DVD and the new Probot CD .... I haven't checked out much of the DVD yet but I can tell you it's got the entire first season unedited along with some nice features, so if you've seen the show and liked it, it's definitely worth checking out .... As for the Probot cd, I think I'm going to do a review ..... so here goes: Probot - Probot (2004) The long-rumored metal side project of Dave Grohl (you know, the Foo Fighters guy, ex-Nirvana member) is finally here after several years of speculation .... the basic story is that Grohl grew up as a fan of hardcore music and later got into underground metal ... and a few years back he was messing around in the studio and started recording these metal songs (he plays nearly all the instruments on the album) just for fun .... it became a dream of his to get all his favorite metal singers to do vocals on the songs, so he made up a list and sent the tapes out to various vocalists, and they all responded and added vocals, thus the Probot project was born. (The only guy he couldn't get was Tom Araya of Slayer, which probably would've been cool). Now, before I review it, here's a look at the track listing, with the guest vocalists and their band's name: 1. "Centuries of Sin" w/ Cronos (Venom) 2. "Red War" w/ Max Cavalera (Sepultura/Soulfly) 3. "Shake Your Blood" w/ Lemmy (Motorhead) 4. "Access Babylon" w/ Mike Dean (Corrosion of Conformity) 5. "Silent Spring" w/ Kurt Brecht (D.R.I.) 6. "Ice Cold Man" w/ Lee Dorrian (Cathedral/Napalm Death) 7. "The Emerald Law" w/ Wino (The Obsessed) 8. "Big Sky" w/ Tom G. Warrior (Celtic Frost) 9. "Dictatosaurus" w/ Snake (Voivod) 10. "My Tortured Soul" w/ Eric Wagner (Trouble) 11. "Sweet Dreams" w/ King Diamond (King Diamond/Mercyful Fate) OK, so basically it doesn't sound very much like Foo Fighters, which is to be expected ... it does, however, have a nice hard rock/metal feel to it and it's a pretty consistent album, which is a surprise, given the haphazard mix of vocalists and musical styles. Most of the songs pretty much match the material of the vocalists' original bands. The disc offers a nice cross-section of underground 80s metal sounds: you've got thrash (Voivod, Sepultura), early black metal (Venom), rock n roll (Motorhead), Sabbath-inspired stoner/doom metal (Trouble, Cathedral), and cross-over/hardcore (D.R.I., C.O.C.), among others, represented here ... but it kind of all meshes together in one cohesive sound throughout the album ... I guess in a sense it kind of represents the missing link of all these underground styles and demonstrates how they're all interconnected and influenced the metal of the 90s and beyond. All of the genres kind of spill over into one another, and thus it makes for a pretty good overall album. Basically, there isn't a bad track on the disc ... I went into it thinking I'd prefer the stuff with vocalists I'm more familiar with (Max, Tom Warrior, King Diamond, etc) but these aren't even my favorites on the album. Some of the real standouts are the thrashy "Centuries of Sin" w/ Cronos and "Dictatosaurus" w / Snake, and the pretty straightforward single "Shake Your Blood" w/ Lemmy. But like I said overall I enjoyed them all, and if you're remotely interested in metal or even hard rock, or even Dave Grohl's music, I suggest you check this out ... I'm familiar with most of the singers here, but not all, and it's got me interested in some other underground stuff ... it may just do the same for you, so check it out. Jay's Picks: "Centuries of Sin", "Dictatosaurus", "The Emerald Law", "Shake Your Blood" *Note: There's also a secret hidden bonus track that features none other than comedic actor Jack Black , I assume it's called "I Am the Warlock" judging by the lyrics ... and it's actually pretty good. It's funny, I had read about this a while back, then today as I listened I forgot he was on it and was like, "hmm, who is this?" and I had to look it up. He actually sounds pretty good, but in retrospect it's funny also when you listen to it and picture him singing. Saturday, February 21, 2004
Check out the Ozzfest 2004 lineup, it's pretty killer, definitely the best it's been in a while ...
Main Stage: OZZY OSBOURNE JUDAS PRIEST SLAYER DIMMU BORGIR SUPERJOINT RITUAL BLACK LABEL SOCIETY Second Stage: SLIPKNOT HATEBREED LAMB OF GOD Rotating: ATREYU BLEEDING THROUGH LACUNA COIL EVERY TIME I DIE UNEARTH GOD FORBID I'm pretty sure I want to go. Here are the local dates: Jul. 16 - Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center Aug. 26 - Camden, NJ @ Tweeter Center at the Waterfront Who's with me? Monday, February 16, 2004
Hope everyone had an enjoyable Valentine's Day, mine was excellent ... thanks to Jen for being my valentine (awwwwwww), we enjoyed dinner and a movie (that Adam Sandler joint 50 First Dates, pretty good) .....
Also happy 80th birthday to my grandpop, he's an avid reader of this site ...... actually, no he's not, I'm not sure he knows what computers are, but other than that he's doing just fine .... Congrats to the Al-Dawg on his fancy new sales job .... another metal head sells out to corporate America, what a shame ... So the other day, some moron started a fire at work, she put her food in the microwave for THIRTY MINUTES instead of THREE, just goes to show what kind of dumbasses we have in the news department ... luckily the fire alarm only went off for about a half hour and the smell of burnt Lean Cuisine raviolis is almost gone from the office ... And last but not least, how about that A-Rod to the Yankees trade?????? I'm sure all the non-Yankees fans (especially Red Sox and Mets fans) are having a field day with this ..... but hey, George Steinbrenner is just working within the set of rules given to him, you can't blame him for reaching into his pockets to put the best possible team on the field, there are several other billion-dollar owners out there who refuse to spend their money on their teams, so let's not hear them complaining .... plus I dont see any teams handing back the money they're all making from George's luxury taxes and revenue sharing expenses that they all get to share ... The Mets had every opportunity to get A-Rod a few years ago and make him a hometown star (he grew up a Mets fan, after all) but they decided it wasn't worth it and they'd go in a different direction to get competitive (how's that working out, by the way?) .... The Red Sox made multiple attempts to get A-Rod too this season but they ultimately decided he wasn't worth a few extra million dollars, which is honestly small change when you look at the big picture ... but they shouldn't worry, I'm sure Nomar Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez will be happy to forget that their team was desperate to trade them and they'll just put on a happy face every day at the ballpark, I mean they're pretty stand-up team players and clubhouse leaders with no egos, so something like that wouldn't bother them, right? But seriously though, I almost feel guilty about being a Yankees fan, but then I realize that they're just following the same principles that govern our entire culture, so it would be kind of hypocritical to blame a baseball team for using money as an advantage when every other aspect of our lives is based on the same idea. Right? Anyway, LETS GO YANKEES!!!!! Thursday, February 12, 2004
Rumored Ozzfest 2004 lineup: Ozzy, Judas Priest, Slayer, Slipknot, Hatebreed, Dimmu Borgir, Damage Plan, Superjoint Ritual and Black Label Society .....
If most of those bands are actually there, I may have no choice but to come out of my self-imposed Ozzfest retirement this summer ...... Jen tomorrow! Tuesday, February 10, 2004
More Turnpike adventures ....
Today on my way in to work I spotted a Lincoln that contained three Jewish rabbies .... they were having a pretty spirited conversation and whizzed past me at about 90 mph .... oh and the best part was the license plate: "SO GOOD." I saw that movie Miracle over the weekend, it was quite good, someday it might even be considered a classic. I recommend you check it out, whether you know anything about the 1980 US Olympic hockey team (or hockey itself, for that matter) or not ... Three days until Jen comes home :) Friday, February 06, 2004
So I'm beginning to realize that the NJ Turnpike is somewhat of a death trap....
Tonight on my way home I saw this car completely smashed up and spun around the opposite way on the shoulder of the highway ..... and the night before at a similar time (1 in the a.m.) and location (near Exit 8) there was another car completely flipped over on the other shoulder ..... both times there were cops present and it looked like it was a while after the fact ...... but one time a couple months ago there was this car on its side in the middle of the road with some folks directing traffic around it, now that was some scary shit ...... I don't see what the big deal is though, there often is little traffic at that hour and you pretty much just cruise along in a straight line the whole way, I guess people just have to be big shots and either drive drunk or at speeds in excess of 80 mph, or they just don't have the natural driving and navigational skills that I'm blessed with ... Congrats to Mike Richter, the former NY Rangers goaltender who was forced into early retirement because of head injuries .... he had his number retired in an excellent pregame ceremony the other night at the Garden. Mike was truly a stand-up guy, a leader in every sense and a tremendous athlete. He's provided Ranger fans with so many incredible memories, especially in the magical 1994 Stanley Cup season ... I guess the one that stands out most notably was from that season when he made an outstanding save on Pavel Bure (then considered the league's premiere goal-scorer) on a penalty shot in the '94 finals, but there are honestly so many other amazing Richter performances, especially considering he often had little or no defensive support in front of the net to help him .... it's just a shame that he had his career cut short, but oh what a career it was, spanning both the NHL and international competition as he represented the United States. Thanks for the memories Mike. Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Today is National Letter of Intent day, basically the first day that high school football players can official commit to colleges .... Penn State rounded out an already solid class by getting a commitment from Pittsburgh area quarterback Anthony Morelli, by all accounts one of the top 3-5 high school QBs in the nation ...... the best part is, Morelli had previously made a verbal commitment to Pitt, but after their pathetic showing this year when they were supposed to contend with a national title, coupled with the breakup of the Big East Conference, among other things, Morelli decided to skip out on Pitt (along with several other of their top recruits) and signed with PSU today. Of course there's a lot of hype with HS players as always and you never really know how they'll pan out. There will be plenty of competition at the QB spot in the next couple years too, but if Morelli even comes close to realizing the potential he supposedly have (comparisons to Dan Marino, etc), he can lead this team to a national championship. I saw him personally at the Tribune office this summer in the Burgh and just by looking at him you can see he's a prototypical top college/NFL quarterback. So congrats to Joe Paterno today for rebounding after an awful season, his personal recruitment of Morelli may be what made him decide to come to PSU, and JoePa even said he'll be around as long as Morelli is, so take that as it is. The only hypocritical thing about this is some PSU fans were all outraged when this other QB from Pa., Chad Henne, made a verbal commitment to PSU and then went and signed with our rival Michigan and everyone crucified him for it, but Morelli basically did the same thing with us and he's the savior. Funny how things work out eh .......
I went to see that movie Mystic River the other day, it was pretty good, I can see why it's up for a Best Picture nod at the Academy Awards, there was some great acting, particularly by Best Actor nominee Sean Penn ..... I recommend you check it out, if not in the theaters then when it comes out on video .... Monday, February 02, 2004
Well I was once again off with my Super Bowl Synopsis for the most part ...... but what a game, eh? At least it was entertaining. I won some money too, and could have won more ......
I picked up $40 in our annual Bartolone Family Super Bowl Pool, where we pick a variety of whacky things like total fumbles, or what will the first commercial after the second-half kickoff be about (Sierra Mist, aka a non-alcoholic beverage, for those scoring at home) .... I was extremely close to winning another $200 in another one of those pools where you get a block and certain digits for each team ("2" for the Panthers, "9" for the Patriots) and if the score ends in those digits at the end of any of the quarters, you win ....... so here's the scene, late fourth quarter, Tom Brady throws a TD pass, then the Pats wisely add a successful two-point conversion to put New England ahead 29-22. If it stays that way, it's a win for me. But of course it doesn't, Carolina has to go and score again to ruin it and make the game interesting ....... buuuuuut of course they could get the ball back either at the end of the game or in overtime and add another field goal to win the game 32-29 (which would also be a win for me, for those paying attention). But no. Adam Vinatieri has to go pull his hero routine again and win the game for the Pats with a field goal. Oh well, such is life. But like I predicted, close and entertaining game ... Brady was exceptional, Jake Delhomme started very slow but showed a lot of guts and didn't make mistakes, thus passing the test like I said he would. He didn't lose this game for the Panthers, but their multitude of penalties and their pass coverage failures late in the game did. The running duo of Davis and Foster were alright, Foster's late TD run was a good one, and Steve Smith (my MVP pick) and Muhsin Muhammad were both pretty outstanding. I had the Panthers getting 6.5 points, so that was a win, but otherwise I was pretty far off. But hey, that's why they play the games, and now I'm just looking forward to the upcoming draft and next season's Giants Super Bowl run. Some other highlights from the Big Game included Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson's breast during the halftime show (yeah, it wasn't supposed to happen) and a dude in a G-string running onto the field to delay the second-half kickoff and his subsequent beating by security guards and a Patriots player (which CBS didn't show - probably would have been hilarious though). Oh well, such is life. |